Schabobele Road Race

A much smaller field showed up this year than last. Snow falling in Ohio may have scared some people but no precip fell during the race. A handwritten sign at the sign-up table warned of sand, cinders, and gravel on the roads and recommended 10mph descents, but in reality the roads weren't bad at all. The group I found myself in took the first lap's descents very cautiously, but after that everybody eased up. The Masters group were started off with the 3s and the group of 30 riders or so split up quickly on the first ascent up three hills culminating in Schabobele hill. I went up just behind the lead group alone and a second group soon formed among the riders that didn't make the lead group as the riders descended with myself, Indiana Joe, Larry, and Todd Ladderach in that second group. The third and fourth time up Schabobele I noticed I wasn't working as hard to get up as the others in my group and I went up alone each time; the fourth time I wasn't rejoined by anybody on the descent and I ended up riding the last twelve miles alone. Just like last year, the fifth time up Schabobele hurt and I was glad the race was over at 52 miles. The first place Masters finished 3rd overall among the 3s and Woody finished 2nd among the Masters and was in the lead pack the whole race as well, so I felt good about my 3rd even though there were only 6 riders signed up in Masters.

I think the course is well known by now. The main difficulty: a long 1 mile climb followed by a sharp curvy descent (covered with salt and loose cinders this year) that leads into another climb kicking up to 25% at the end. The 3/4s had to do the climb 6 times during the race with the finish of the race at the top of the 1 mile climb.

The two main players in this year's race were Airborne and Savage Hill. John Bruce of Airborne set a steady pace on the first climb that split off over half the field - including most of SCH unfortunately. Rob and myself were the only two SCH riders that made it over the climb with the field. As people struggled back on, Airborne sent a lone rider, Jamie Raddin, off the front. We sent Woody (who had recently chased back on the field) up the road to counter the move. Hats off to Woody for being willing to counter-attack shortly after chasing onto the field! The plan worked perfectly. Woody caught Jamie and they stayed away for the remainder of the lap. The field caught Woody and Jamie just at the top of the 25% kick at the end of the climb. Now we had 3 SCH guys safely in the field for the next lap.

The third time up the hill, John Bruce set a difficult tempo which resulted in a 3 man break. Rob attempted to follow the move but got split off on the steep, secondary climb. This was a serious move. We had a three man break going up the road filled with good climbers and no one willing to chase. Rob immediately recognized the threat, yelled to me, and got to the front to start chasing. I helped with a few short pulls, but in the end it was a solo effort by Rob to single handedly chase the break down. In the reaming lap, I attempted some attacks hoping to make John work. But each move was perfectly covered by Jamie, nullifying any pressure on Airborne.

With 1.5 laps to go things really slowed down. The final selection of 12 riders were sitting up, tapping their brakes to stay of the front, getting a bite to eat, and apparently just hoping to make it to the end of the race without getting dropped. I moved to the front, got the nod from Rob, and launched a fairly low key attack. There was no response from the field and I had a big gap immediately. The next time I looked back Jamie had, once again, covered the move and was closing in. However this time we knew we could make the break stick and started working together.

Jamie and I kept the pace going strong through the remainder of the lap and over the climb. As we started the last lap of the race, we were joined from behind by a lone IU rider. A few minutes later, Rob and John, who had escaped on the climb, also joined us. After playing a few tactical games, Airborne and SCH called a truce realizing that the IU rider would benefit the most while we wore each other down. Meanwhile Jamie began worrying about a lone rider that was bridging up to us. Rob kept assuring him that it was no problem because "we'll dump him on the climb". But Rob wasn't telling Jamie the whole story. Rob also knew who the rider was. Just as we reached the base of the final climb up to the finish, Woody (the lone chaser) popped out of nowhere and attacked the bottom of the climb.

Unfortunately the climb ended up being a disaster for us. I cramped so badly at the bottom that I almost had to get off and walk the hill. Rob cramped shortly afterwards, and Woody was too tired from the chase to follow the pace of Airborne. So the race came down to Airborne and the IU guy. The IU guy ended up being stronger than anyone else and took 1st place. Rob, Woody, and I crossed the line shortly afterwards.